larry@geowhiz.UUCP (Larry McVoy) (11/13/85)
I have a friend (who won't be a friend anymore if Pnews chokes again)
who bought an AT&T Unix PC. He's happy with the performance but not
with the hard disk. The controller is the WD1010xx (which I think
causes all the problems). The problem appears to be that the disk gets
randomly corrupted, leading to disk errors. This poor guy has been
restoring his 40M disk from floppies about once a day... He has not
been able to get the problem fixed despite intensive (?) efforts by
AT&T (his service contract has no penalty clause). So, two questions:
1) Does anyone know how to fix the problem? Want some quick $$$?
2) Given that we expect minimal response to (1), he's looking for a
different system. Desired features:
o 32 architecture (at least internally, a 16bit bus is acceptable).
o Unix, preferably 4.2, but SysV is better than MS-DOS :-)
o At least 4 serial ports, 6 would be better.
o 1 or more parallel ports (laser printer).
o Either a reliable supplier f peripherals or a well known bus
(multi, VME, etc).
o Availibilty of solid service highly desirable (no brand X).
o Price tag of less than $15,000 (it is almost christmas :-)
Systems we've heard of (sort of) and want info on:
o Altos
o Symetrics
o Integrated {Solutions | Systems}
o Opus (320xx, SysV in a PC slot)
o DSI-32 (Unix ready for this yet?)
o Sun (Out of reach price wise?)
o uVaxII (also expensive?)
If you have any information on these or other systems, please let me
know (salespeople are welcome). If there is sufficient response, I
will summarize by vendor (read "don't send metoo messages, please")
to the net.
Thanks in advance,
--
Larry McVoy +----------------+
| Slower traffic |
Arpa: mcvoy@rsch.wisc.edu | keep right |
Uucp: {seismo, ihnp4}!uwvax!geowhiz!geophiz!larry +----------------+seifert@hammer.UUCP (Snoopy) (11/15/85)
In article <279@geowhiz.UUCP> larry@geowhiz.UUCP (Larry McVoy) writes: >I have a friend (who won't be a friend anymore if Pnews chokes again) >who bought an AT&T Unix PC. He's happy with the performance but not >with the hard disk. The controller is the WD1010xx (which I think >causes all the problems). The problem appears to be that the disk gets >randomly corrupted, leading to disk errors. This poor guy has been >restoring his 40M disk from floppies about once a day... He has not >been able to get the problem fixed despite intensive (?) efforts by >AT&T (his service contract has no penalty clause). So, two questions: > >1) Does anyone know how to fix the problem? Want some quick $$$? We had a similar problem with the 6130, which uses the WD2010. The 2010 (and I suspect, the 1010) has a "misfeature", which bites you if you try and get too fancy with the disk driver. There's an easy fix, but you need source for the disk driver, which I am assuming you don't have. >2) Given that we expect minimal response to (1), he's looking for a > different system. Desired features: > > o 32 architecture (at least internally, a 16bit bus is acceptable). > o Unix, preferably 4.2, but SysV is better than MS-DOS :-) > o At least 4 serial ports, 6 would be better. > o 1 or more parallel ports (laser printer). > o Either a reliable supplier f peripherals or a well known bus > (multi, VME, etc). > o Availibilty of solid service highly desirable (no brand X). > o Price tag of less than $15,000 (it is almost christmas :-) > > Systems we've heard of (sort of) and want info on: > > o Altos > o Symetrics > o Integrated {Solutions | Systems} > o Opus (320xx, SysV in a PC slot) > o DSI-32 (Unix ready for this yet?) > o Sun (Out of reach price wise?) > o uVaxII (also expensive?) Add the Tek 6130. The base system includes: NS 32016 running at 10MHz, 1 MB RAM, floating point unit, 20MB wini, 2 rs232 ports, ethernet, GPIB. It runs Utek, which is an enhanced version of 4.2, with some sys V things added, and a distributed file system. A system with 2 additional rs232 ports and 2 parallel printer ports is under $11k. I'll be posting an announcement to net.announce.newprod soon about the 'S' systems, which are bundled turnkey systems, and release 2.2, which includes shared memory and user configurable kernel. Snoopy tektronix!tekecs!doghouse.TEK!snoopy
markm@orca.UUCP (Mark Mehall) (11/19/85)
> In article <297@geowhiz.UUCP> Larry McVoy writes that he's interested in a > system with these desired features: > > o 32 architecture (at least internally, a 16bit bus is acceptable). > o Unix, preferably 4.2, but SysV is better than MS-DOS :-) > o At least 4 serial ports, 6 would be better. > o 1 or more parallel ports (laser printer). > o Either a reliable supplier f peripherals or a well known bus > (multi, VME, etc). > o Availibilty of solid service highly desirable (no brand X). > o Price tag of less than $15,000 (it is almost christmas :-) > The Tektronix 6130 has the following features: o 32 bit architecture with 16 bit external bus (NS32016 based) o Unix 4.2 with Sys V features added o 2 serial ports standard, up to 14 ports are supported o Dual parallel interface available o Peripherals available: color graphics terminals, dot matrix graphics printers, color inkjet copiers, graphics tablets, streamer tape drives and other devices supported. o Solid service available from Tektronix in a variety of terms. o 1 megabyte memory standard, expandable up to 7 megabytes. o 20 megabyte winchester standard, 40 and 80 megabyte drives available. o Local area network (Ethernet) with Distributed File System standard. o General Purpose Interface Bus standard. o Excellent documentation and manuals set. o Base price of $9,500 (U.S.) o Educational discounts available. o Other interfaces available: High speed RS-232 (up to 38.4K baud), DMA RS-422/RS-232 (up to 400K bits/sec.), Small Computer Standard Interface (SCSI), High speed GPIB (up to 250K bytes/sec.), and dual centronics interfaces. o Plot 10 graphics software: GKS, CORE, TCS and STI libraries. o Compilers: C, FORTRAN 77, PASCAL, new ANSI BASIC with GKS graphics. o Applications software: 20/20 spreadsheet, XED wordprocessor, MINITAB statistical analysis. If you would like more information on the 6130, please contact the local Tektronix office or drop me a note. Mark Mehall uucp: {ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}! Tektronix Inc. tektronix!orca!markm P.O. Box 1000 60-770 CSnet: orca!markm@tek Wilsonville, Oregon 97070 ARPAnet: orca!markm.tek@csnet-relay Phone (503) 685-2275 FAX: (503) 682-3408 GRP III, II Auto